The Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) project began in February 2005 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Department of National Defence (DND), establishing NEOSSat as a collaboration combining two projects: DND's space surveillance mission HEOSS (High Earth Orbit Space Surveillance) and the CSA's asteroid finding project NESS (Near Earth Space Surveillance). The two missions share the same passive optical sensor payload integrated into a multi-mission microsatellite bus. Each mission, however, is directed and managed by a different science team.
Following a competitive process, the NEOSSat development contract, encompassing Phases B, C and D, was awarded to Dynacon in July 2007. In 2008 Dynacon sold its satellite business to Microsat Systems Canada Inc. (MSCI), and MSCI continued the project as a subcontractor to Dynacon. After lengthy delays, NEOSSat was launched in February 2013 by Antrix Corporation, an India-based launch provider.
The scope of the NEOSSat mission includes:
- -Development of an affordable multi-mission bus for future CSA and/or DND missions, i.e., the design of the satellite platform allows the same bus to be used for several future microsatellite missions;
-Discovery of new asteroids and comets and monitoring their trajectories; and
-Development of technology and expertise for monitoring satellites and space debris in medium Earth orbits (MEO) and geosynchronous Earth orbits (GEO). .
The focus of this evaluation was on the CSA components of NEOSSat, i.e., the development of a multi-mission bus and the discovery and monitoring of new asteroids and comets and monitoring their trajectories. The evaluation covers the entire history of NEOSSat, from the CSA's signing of its two contracts in 2005 to the end of December 2013.